Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
"sucktivity"?
Can I add that to my lexicon? 
Rule: Consistency is KEY to accepting fictional science. If technology reacts to different situations in a counter-intuitive way, or in similar situations in different ways (or, as demonstrated by the old "Flash Gordon" serials, a laser that can melt a rock, yet create only a building agony when projected onto Flash Gordon's chest until it can be switched off at the other end of the cliffhanger-- gad, I laughed at that scene!), the audience won't believe the science, and you've lost them.
Subrule: Quantum Mechanics is still mysterious enough to sometimes supply a "fudge-factor" and explain inconsistencies. But don't get too sloppy using it. |
One of the things I've noticed is that when there are unbreakable rules set in place there is a tendency to try and work around them or change them. I'll use an example involving time travel.
In DC Comics at one point time travel was so easy that it was only slightly more difficult than jumping in the family car and travelling to the next city. Some characters (like Superman, Green Lantern [Hal Jordan], and Jonah Hex) spent a signifcant amount of time in other eras. But if you travel to a time where you already exist the time-travelling you becomes a phantom, able to observe events but unable to change anything.
So, after an event that altered the structure of the universe, a rule was set down that each person can only use each of the three known methods of time travel one time in their life. After the third trip you were stuck where ever you ended up for the rest of your life. But it is possible for you to meet yourself.
Soon, that became too restrictive so it was altered so that you can make repeated trips but the price is that you will begin to take physical damage to your body (one character had significant parts of his body replaced with cybernetics due to this damage). This was later altered to making repeated time travel possible but extremely risky.
Now repeated time travel is possible but the danger is that you can alter the past. The longer that alteration remains in place, the more firmly in place it becomes until it becomes unchangable. Due to this, a group of individuals have taken on the task to ensure that history is kept on track, countering any alterations in the timeline.